The Bottom Line: Determine what you need to calculate, and try to find simplest calculator that can handle the job. "Menu" driven is not always easier in a limited calculator space!
dongeeL's Full Review: Hewlett Packard 17bII Scientific Calculator
I started to look for a good business calculator. Since I have been using HP calculators since high school days, my main criteria was to find a Reverse Polar Notation (RPN) calculator. This narrowed my search down to HP calculators again! For my slight disappointment, this calculator has a switchable RPN or Algerbraic mode, and the manual is geared towards algerbraic mode! There are only handful of HP financial calculators and I chose 17BII because it seemed to have more than adequate functions to handle just about any business calculations. It does, but it reminds me of the old DOS operating system. It's too difficult to use unless referring to the manual for each particular function I want to use. It compares to Apple vs. PC (pre-Windows days) issues people used to debate back in 1980's.
It has more than 100 business functions, but many are simple useless functions such as calculating % increase, and so on. Another function is alarm, but who would use this as an alarm clock? One of the most useful function is Time Value Money to calculate Present Value, Future Value, Payment, and interest rate, but this function is found in ANY financial calculators including the least expensive one. In another words, the most frequently used functions are found in any financial calculators and the more expensive calculators like 17BII just have additional in-frequently used functions that are not too useful unless you are studying for PhD in Business. I seriously doubt if any professional finacial businessmen would use any more than a handful of functions on this calculator. PC programs such as Excel would do a much better job calculating "cash flow" as one small example.
Although menu driven, it is difficult to figure out what is what without reading the manual because menus are abrreviated. For example the menu item "TVM" stands for "Time Value Money", but I only know it from reading the manual. Menu has several layers, so it is difficult to know where I am without refering to the manual. I should've bought a calculator that has pre-assigned function keys instead of 17BII's menu driven top row keys (top row keys have no assigned function, but instead they are used to select the menu on screen and the menu changes depending on the layer you are in).
There are two other dislikes; (1) 17BII uses three button cell batteries. I wish I had known this as I probably avoided buying a calculator that did not use "normal" batteries such as AA or AAA. (2) It comes with a cheap vinyl case that is difficult to prevent calculator from accidental turn-on if bumped to an object inside a brief case. For the money spent on 17BII, the case is just too tacky.
I just learned another lesson that expensive does not necessarily mean better. It is similar to driving a tractor trailer to bring home a bag of grocery.
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